Drug involvement is one of the 13 adjudicative criteria that security clearance applicants and holders are judged against for obtaining or maintaining eligibility to access classified information. Despite growing social norms around drug use, because of federal law, using marijuana remains an obstacle for obtaining a clearance.
Some contractors have stopped drug testing employees for fear of losing personnel on contracts, especially as more and more states legalize drugs like marijuana. But while fewer employers may be testing, many federal agencies or DoD components still are.
Taking a drug test can be nerve wracking even if you know you won’t piddle dirty. But what if your labs are “cancelled”?
One ClearanceJobsBlog subscriber writes:
First time going through the clearance process. 2 weeks ago, I went to the agency’s HQ for urinalysis, polygraph, and fingerprinting. Just got a call from the lab doing the drug screen that they have listed my urinalysis as “canceled”. Something about the specific gravity being out of range. He said it’s not a negative thing and happens often when folks drink too much water and dilute their sample (they gave us a bottle at testing which I downed). He seemed to imply this happens all the time but now I’m worried it will reflect negatively. But to add to that, the two offices of the agency are a good distance from me. I wonder if retesting for just urinalysis if they can use a local lab. Has anyone had this issue that can give some insight?
DRUG TESTING POLICY
There currently are no general regulations to perform periodic or random drug testing within the clearance process. Government agencies or contractors that do assess these concerns as a part of their onboarding for new employees would require drug testing more so to address suitability for a certain cleared program, and the drug test shouldn’t be considered a part of the clearance process.
CANCELLED = INCONCLUSIVE
A few background investigators and clearance holders on a variety of threads on the ClearanceJobsBlog note that a “cancelled” test result just means that it is inconclusive, which essentially means the test was incompetent and did not determine if the test taker is positive or negative for drugs.
Soteria Screening Labs notes that this can happen for usually three reasons, such as internal adulteration, external adulteration, or on-site technician error. Internal adulteration means a diluted sample, while external adulteration “is a situation when something additional has been added to the sample. Most often external substances are added when the patient is not being observed to try to throw off the results.” Technical errors can mean anything from a technician not properly conducting the test, or the test kit being expired / faulty.
As a security clearance applicant, the first step should be to contact the employer or agency sponsoring you or touch base with the testing facility to ask about next steps.
Some agencies use local providers for testing, so ask the recruiter or security officer you are working with if that is an option, or if they will compensate you for mileage if they don’t have anyone trusted locally that you can go to.
Fear not: the easiest way to resolve a inconclusive or cancelled result is to retake the drug test.
